The most prominent is an Indian staffer named Neal Sampat, played by Dev Patel.

NEWYORKER: Broken News

Dev Patel says he's keeping his fingers crossed that the film will win one of the awards it's up for.

BBC: Newsbeat - Entertainment - Actor hoping for Globes success

An eighteen-year-old Muslim tea-boy named Jamal (Dev Patel), born and raised in the poverty of Mumbai, teeters on the verge of fame and fortune.

NEWYORKER: Slumdog Millionaire

Dev Patel, sex-obsessed Anwar in the first two series of E4's Skins, plays Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire, a former street child from Mumbai in India.

BBC: Newsbeat - Entertainment - Actor hoping for Globes success

Jamal is played as an adult by Dev Patel, a hugely appealing young star, not conventionally handsome, who has mastered the art of suggesting by withholding -- you can almost see Jamal's thoughts in process -- along with the risky business of putting his character heedlessly out there when love or danger demand it.

WSJ: 'Slumdog' Finds Riches in Poor Boy's Tale

An amalgam of "Oliver Twist, " "The Three Musketeers" and Bollywood extravagance, it's the saga -- mainly in English, plus some subtitled Hindi -- of a wretchedly poor Muslim boy, played as a young man by Dev Patel, who pulls himself up by his brains instead of his bootstraps, and gets a shot at becoming a millionaire on a wondrously garish Indian TV quiz show.

WSJ: Telluride Thrills